When I pull into the parking lot of a state forest to walk the dog, I’m reminded of Christmas. The abundant red and green color scheme of the hawthorn trees evokes the holiday season. The hawthorn trees were just loaded with ripe red fruit. It seemed like there were more of these grape-sized, ...

Fall creeps south like a devouring beast, rampaging over the hills and valleys and sending animals fleeing from its path. Tiny birds escape to the south in September, when the first hint of the fall beast’s arrival shows in the changing color of a few leaves here and there. Warblers and ...

Fall is such a wonderful time of year — leaves changing, air crisp and cool, pumpkin spice lattes — yum! Fall is also a fantastic time to plant and tend to your gardens for next spring. Have you ever thought about creating a native wildflower meadow in your yard? Do you want to attract ...

In the Nature Center, we have a room full of dead birds. It’s a small room, off a corner of the live animal room on the first floor. The birds are the collection of Ralph Simpson, a self-taught naturalist from Warren, Pennsylvania. He collected and preserved most of the specimens in the ...

The autumnal equinox is upon us. Sept. 23 will officially be the end of this amazing summer we’ve had and will be the beginning of our much beloved fall. The changing of the leaves, the colder and brisker weather, darker earlier evenings — so much is about to change in our beautiful ...

People have all kinds of rituals to celebrate life that I think animals would just find weird. There are weddings, where large groups come together to celebrate a couple getting together. Animals have more personal rituals, experienced only by the pair, sometimes for a moment, sometimes for a ...